Hello, all
Wifi where I am right now hasn’t been too kind to me so you might get a few consecutive blogs 🙂
Three days ago was our last day in Santiago, Chile. This month went by so quickly. I’m still trying to process the whole thing. It is still so unreal– that I am on the World Race.
Instead of going to the school to spend time with the students we had been working with this past month, we walked with them to the local Stadium to watch the kids proudly participate in the 13th Olympics for Special Education Schools. It was such an honor and joy to support the kids and their amazing teachers. It was SO cold and I definitely was lacking a sweater or two and warmer shoes;but, it was worth it. Even when I was volunteered to watch over the youngest girls’ soccer team at the last minute.
We headed back to the house and said more goodbyes. We lugged our bags to the gate while we waited for two separate Ubers. With Shea having an injured ankle and with all of our packs, it was just not worth the hassle to get into the often crammed microbuses and then the metro train for the next hour to get to our destination. So, we took the Uber to the Terminal Bus Station. Well, one of the Uber’s made it the whole way.
Of course, the one I was in, didn’t. Yeah…the car stalled at a stop light before an intersection. Since I was the only one in the car that spoke Spanish, the driver asked if we could help him push the vehicle through the intersection to the other side. So, I didn’t really ask my teammates…but I basically, just said, “Okay, time to get out and push the car.” So, Mollie, Aryne, and I got out and pushed while Sarah stayed in and guarded our packs and the driver steered. Three random guys came to help us. From there, we had to walk the rest of the way to the bus Terminal. One more mile with our day packs, two of our big packs (the rest were with the other Uber), and many bags of snacks. We were, honestly, really lucky that this happened to us four (Mollie, Aryne, Sarah, and I) and not to Shea, Fabienne, and Emily Ann. Their car had 5 of the big packs, their own day packs and an airporter of food. With Shea’s ankle injury, I’m not sure they would have been able to get very far.
I should add that none of us had any active mobile data so that,of course, makes it harder to get another Uber (Did I mention Ubers are illegal in Chile?…whoops) and we had been told by our host to not risk taking a Taxi because they weren’t always trustworthy. I had downloaded an offline map of the area so we knew where we had to go. (Get maps.me!)
My map said we only had a mile to go…but it was about a 30 minute walk. We walked, got a few stares, and felt some sweat start and some shoulders ache in the 55 degree weather. “How much farther?” Aryne even asked. “0.8 miles. About 20 minutes.” By this point, I’m calculating we would maybe arrive to the station around 6:30pm and our bus left at 7:00pm.
We ended up getting a Taxi for the rest of the way. Although, the driver was pretty hesitant in allowing all four of us to get in with the 2 big packs and all of our day packs but we took off toward the Terminal. He dropped us off near the Terminal and we still needed to walk to the Terminal a little more but we met up with Fabienne, Emily Ann, and Shea and quickly prepared for the next trip. That was Friday.
Saturday night, after a 22 hour bus ride, my team and I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We had previously been in Santiago, Chile. From the bus station, we had to walk another 1.2 miles with all of our stuff to get to the hostel. We took a few breaks and all of us contemplated the things we could start to get rid of to alleviate us of the weight on our backs. But, we made it to our hostel.
For our remaining 3 days here in San Pedro de Atacama, our entire Squad will be coming together to go over our time with our ministries the past month. We will be meeting with our Mentors and Coaches who will so gracefully travel to Chile just to pour into us during these next days. We will share stories, relax, worship, and grow together.
